your mama's culling

Wesley Smith’s latest in the Weekly Spectator is titled Politically Correct Eugenics. Steps taken to ensure genetic purity are much more acceptable in polite society when the inferior stock is eliminated one surgical procedure at a time.

With the development of prenatal genetic diagnosis, the drive toward eugenics has returned with a vengeance. Americans may heartily cheer participants in the Special Olympics, but we abort some 90 percent of all gestating infants diagnosed with genetic disabilities such as DS [Down Syndrome], dwarfism, and spina bifida. Not only that, but a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 2005 found that of the approximately 5,000 babies born with DS annually, only about 625 were born to mothers who knew of their baby's condition before birth. Together, these figures suggest that under the regimen of universal prenatal genetic testing urged upon us by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the number of DS babies born each year could plummet below 1,000.

Ironic, isn’t it, that the contemporary push for the Perfect Baby should coincide with a society-wide forfeiture of traditional parental responsibility.

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Don't assume that if more mothers had known that the child had DS, there would have been more abortions. Of the 4,375 who did not know, most were probably given the option of pre-natal testing, but turned it down. OBs routinely offer or suggest such screenings. Because there are no in-utero treatments for DS, and testing poses risks to the child, women who would not abort do not agree to be tested. I'd bet that accounts for the large number who did not know beforehand.

Posted by: -
Mar. 25, 2008 9:33 PM ET USA

Gentle readers, this phenomenon has existed in the Church for decades. As Uncle Phil's book Faithful Departed points out, the Kennedys had a group of theologians at Hyannisport in 1964 to discuss the Catholic politician and the abortion question. All the usual suspects were there and they agreed that abortion was acceptable as the lesser evil. Catholics are very comfortable with abortion as are their secular neighbors. When was the last time you saw a dwarf?

Posted by: -
Mar. 25, 2008 12:59 PM ET USA

Genetically disabled babies are given with equal graciousness to all parents. This certainly means that only the most pro-life persons refuse to destroy their baby. I wonder what part of the 90% are called "Catholic" on the hospital data record?

Posted by: -
Mar. 25, 2008 12:26 PM ET USA

Uh huh, perfectly and selfishly backwards. Pursuit of Happiness, Liberty and oh yeah, "thats the life for me" How quickly we cast aside our crosses left on the wayside of post-Easter spirituality like a littering of chocolate (bunny) wrappers. It's not enough to axe ones own soul but to take out the most innocent of others with them and to misleadingly soil as many others too.

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